The utility company had just cut off the electricity supply to his house. Darkness and shadows were back in Alejandro Gonzalez Raga’s life. His rented apartment in Madrid–shared with his wife, siblings, and in-laws–was as devoid of light as the Cuban cells in which he was jailed for five years after Castro´s “Ofensiva 2” operation…
The utility company had just cut off the electricity supply to his house. Darkness and shadows were back in Alejandro Gonzalez Raga’s life. His rented apartment in Madrid–shared with his wife, siblings, and in-laws–was as devoid of light as the Cuban cells in which he was jailed for five years after Castro´s “Ofensiva 2” operation…
By Carl Bernstein When the Committee to Protect Journalists was founded in 1981, the prevailing threats to freedom of the press around the world were still from juntas, dictators, authoritarian regimes, and social systems determined to dominate the media as a means of maintaining control over citizens, usually within the boundaries of the nation-state. Toward…
By Joel Simon In 2008, the numbers of journalists killed and jailed both dropped for the first time since the war on terror was launched in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. This is welcome news, but it is tempered by harsh realities. The war on terror had a devastating effect on journalists, and…
Canada | Chile | Dominican Republic | El Salvador | Haiti | Nicaragua | Panama | Peru CANADA • A Canadian court ordered news organizations not to report on the details of the bail hearings of 17 suspects accused of terrorism in March. The court acted under a provision in the Canadian Criminal Code that…
Adding to a mounting body of international legal opinion, two landmark rulings held that public officials may not be shielded from public scrutiny. In May, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights voided a criminal defamation sentence against a local journalist and urged Argentina to reform its defamation laws in line with regional standards. Two months…
The news media were caught in the middle of a deepening power struggle between the leftist government of President Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, and the conservative opposition governors of the eastern lowlands. The battle was fueled by rising ethnic tensions between Bolivia’s indigenous majority, centered in the capital, La Paz, and the European-descended opposition…
The kidnapping and torture of two journalists and a driver working undercover in Rio de Janeiro exposed the risks to Brazilian journalists, especially those reporting on organized crime in urban areas. Throughout the country, journalists covering mayoral and legislative campaigns faced legal and physical harassment.
Deadly violence in Colombia eased for the second consecutive year as no journalists were killed in direct relation to their work. Colombian authorities cited increased security throughout the country as the cause for the recent decline in news media deaths, but journalists said widespread self-censorship had made the press less of a target. Even so,…